182 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



Or with the keen relish of the English jockey, whose only idea of 

 " the turfj" is that of the place nature has specially provided him 

 upon which to race horses. * 



Neither do we look upon grass, at the present moment, with the 

 eyes of our friend Tom Thrifty, the farmer, who cuts " three tons to 

 the acre." We have, in our present mood, no patience with the tall 

 and gigantic fodder, by this name, that grows in the fertile bottoms 

 of the West, so tall that the largest Durham is lost to view while 

 walking through it. 



No we love most the soft turf which, beneath the flickering 

 shadows of scattered trees, is thrown like a smooth natural carpet 

 over the swelling outline of the smiling earth. Grass, not grown 

 into tall meadows, or wild bog tussocks, but softened and refined by 

 the frequent touches of the patient mower, till at last it becomes a 

 perfect wonder of tufted freshness and verdure. Such grass, in 

 short, as Shakspeare had in his mind, when he said, in words since 

 echoed ten thousand times, 



"How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon that bank;" 

 or Ariosto, in his Orlando 



"The approaching night> not knowing where to pass, 

 She checks her reins, and on the velvet grass, 

 Beneath the umbrageous trees, her form she throws, 

 To cheat the tedious hours with brief repose." 



In short, the ideal of grass is a lawn, which is, to a meadow, 

 what " Bishop's lawn " is to homespun Irish linen. 



With such a lawn, and large and massive trees, one has indeed 

 the most enduring sources of beauty in a country residence. Per- 

 petual neatness, freshness and verdure in the one ; ever expanding 

 beauty, variety and grandeur in the other what more does a rea- 

 sonable man desire of the beautiful about him in the country? 

 Must we add flowers, exotic plants, fruits ? Perhaps so, but they 

 are all, in an ornamental light, secondary to trees and grass, where 

 these can be had in perfection. Only one other grand element is 

 needed to make our landscape garden complete water. A river, 

 or a lake, in which the skies and the " tufted trees" may see them- 



